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Contact: Jill Hummels, School of Engineering, (785) 864-2934, or Steven McCabe, (785) 864-3747.

Professor to discuss wind engineering before Congressional committee

LAWRENCE -- How do engineers design buildings to better withstand the destructive forces of nature? The answer is blowing in the wind.

Steven McCabe, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas, will appear before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards on Thursday, Oct. 11, to testify about the importance of federal funding devoted to wind engineering. The discipline looks at making buildings and structures better able to handle damaging winds from hurricanes, tornadoes, exceptionally high winds and even shock waves from blasts.

"Wind destroys more property per year than earthquakes," McCabe says. However, the U.S. government provides $150 million for earthquake engineering research and only $5 million for wind engineering. McCabe, an expert in reinforced concrete structures, says additional funding may be justified. KU is working with three other Midwest schools to develop a consortium on wind engineering. U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., asked McCabe to take part in the hearing. Moore serves on the House Science Committee, which oversees the subcommittee. McCabe will testify on behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the West-Central Wind Research Consortium, of which KU is a founding member.

The subcommittee has been looking into issues surrounding wind engineering for more than a year. The investigation was spurred by reports that indicate a significant increase in the number and severity of hurricanes in the years to come.

"The focus is going to be what we need to do to mitigate not only loss of life but property damage," says Jana Denning, a staff member in Mooreÿs office.

For example, Hurricane Hugo, which struck South Carolina and the Caribbean in 1989, claimed more than 100 lives and inflicted more than $4 billion in insured losses. But not only coastal regions would benefit from attention to wind engineering.

"Tornadoes and hurricanes affect just about every part of the country," Denning says, and the costs are extreme. A 1993 federal report lists the 1966 Topeka tornado among the top five most costly tornadoes to strike the United States. Damage was calculated at $470 million. The costliest tornado was a 1975 cyclone that hit Omaha, Neb., and caused $1.13 billion in damage.

Although tornadoes often dig precise paths of destruction, their damage can be far-reaching, McCabe says.

"There's a lot of junk, literally junk, that gets thrown through the air, becoming missiles that can penetrate structures and break windows," McCabe says.

One of the added benefits of wind engineering is its implication for protection in terrorist acts, such as a car bombing.

"There are attributes that are similar. A big thing that happens every time there's a windstorm or a car bomb is (shattered) glass," McCabe says. Engineers would strive to develop building systems that work together to distribute destructive forces through a structure's frame and protect the people inside.

"When you have a car bomb go off, you know you're going to have a lot of repairs, but what you want to do is protect life safety and minimize injuries," McCabe says.

The hearing, titled "Weatherproofing the U.S.: Are We Prepared for Severe Storms?" will be Webcast from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 11.